I. INTRODUCTIONS

Dr. Kim McClure was introduced as a temporary replacement for Dr. Mark Mossman. She is representing the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Matt Bean was introduced as a new member representing the College of Fine Arts and Communication.

II. STUDENT APPEALS

The agenda was reordered to accommodate students who were not able to be present at the meeting.

A. Request to waive the 6 hour "C" rule

1. RPTA

The student was present to respond to questions from the Council. He reported that a family member had a serious medical problem that was diagnosed during Spring 2009, and although he attended classes regularly and fulfilled his assistantship duties, his academic performance suffered. He enrolled in 9 hours of coursework during Summer 2009, and received a 4.0 for the term. He has only one class remaining to complete his degree. He distributed a letter of support from a faculty member in his department. Council members indicated that they would have liked to have information about why the department did not support the appeal. The student indicated that he hadn't shared the medical condition information with departmental members prior to submitting his appeal. The council would have liked for the student to provide additional documentation. Based on the student's presentation, council members felt that the student appears to be highly motivated to complete his degree and that this is one chance to do so.

B. Request to hold an assistantship position as a probationary student

1. Kinesiology/Sport Management

The student participated in the meeting by phone and Dr. Tim Van Alstine attended the meeting; both responded to questions from the Council. The student indicated that he had believed he met the requirements to be regularly admitted to the RPTA graduate program based on advice from his undergraduate institution, but he later learned that WIU calculates grades in a different manner, and so he is a probationary student at WIU. (WIU counts grades for classes that the former institution superseded with a replacement grade in the same class.) He had changed graduate programs from probationary acceptance in RPTA to probationary acceptance in the Sport Management program during August, when he learned that the RPTA program would not support his request. The Sport Management program also did not support the request. The student indicated that he regretted his grades early in his college career, but he felt that the grade average above 3.0 in his senior year were a better indicator of his motivation to succeed. His past two years of working full time as a teacher and part time coach have allowed him to improve his time management and have led him to aspire to succeed. Dr. Van Alstine indicated that the athletics department fully and strongly supported the student and believed that he would be academically successful while holding an assistantship. Dr. Van Alstine stressed the amount of time that both athletes and graduate assistant coaches are expected to study, particularly in the basketball program. Dr. McClure asked the student if there were barriers to his ability to attend WIU if he were not able to hold the assistantship in the fall semester, and the student said there were not. The student indicated that he does not plan to hold a job outside of the assistantship. Council members suggested that it is fair for the student to experience the consequences of his past academic performance and they noted that no real reason had been presented as to why an exemption from the graduate assistantship policy should be granted.

Motion: To deny the request to hold an assistantship position as a probationary student. (Hassan/McClure). MOTION APPROVED: 4 YES – 1 NO – 3 AB

C. Request to waive GPA admission requirements

1. Health Education

Dr. Susan Moore attended the meeting to explain the situation on behalf of the student. The student graduated from an institution that accepts military-based college credit which is not awarded letter grades. The student has completed only 54 hours of graded college credit for which he has slightly under a 4.0 GPA, and the student graduated Magma Cum Laude. Council members indicated that not only is WIU a military friendly institution, but that there was a clear justification for an exception to the requirement for 60 hours of graded coursework.

Council members expressed frustration with not having access to information from both the student and the department that would be helpful to them in making decisions. They recommended adding some notations to the petition form indicating that the student should provide a rationale and documentation to support the appeal, and that the department should provide a rationale for their recommendation.